It is generally known that pharmaceutical products may be distributed in a variety of forms. Single dose pharmaceutical products are commonly available in tablets, lozenges, capsules, and the like. It is also known that some pharmaceutical products can pose a health risk to young children who are unable to recognize the risks of ingesting such products.
Accordingly, recent efforts have been made to provide child resistant pharmaceutical product packaging that prevents a child from accessing the pharmaceutical while still providing access to adults. By designing child resistant pharmaceutical packaging, the likelihood of accidents caused by a child ingesting a pharmaceutical product are greatly reduced.
Blister card packages are one form of container commonly used for the child resistant packaging of pharmaceuticals, particularly for unit-dose packaging where the delivery of individually packaged dosage units to the consumer or patient is desirable. Generally, a conventional blister card package provides a container for individual dosages of the pharmaceutical, separately packaged for delivery to a consumer. Typically, a blister card package contains one or more individual dosages on a card where each dosage is independently sealed and can be readily detached along perforations. The blister card package is usually constructed of several layers. The top layer is a blister card cover that covers a cavity sheet or container form-stock constructed of a rigid material having integrally formed pharmaceutical blisters or cavities designed to hold a pharmaceutical dosage. The bottom of the cavity sheet is sealed to a lidding layer generally constructed of a foil or paper. Additionally, a thick child resistant backing sheet is typically coupled to the blister card cover and folded so that it is positioned adjacent to the lidding, thereby making the blister card packaging child resistant.
The blister package can be designed for removal of the pharmaceutical from the container in a variety of ways. In some packages, the pharmaceutical is removed by first removing a perforated section of the child resistant backing followed by pressing the pharmaceutical through a rupturable lidding. In other designs, the child resistant backing and the lidding are designed to be peeled off of the cavity sheet to expose and allow removal of the pharmaceutical. One example pharmaceutical package design is the Key-Pak design. The Key-Pak design includes a number of holes formed through the fold over card, each hole positioned adjacent to a corresponding pharmaceutical blister. The holes formed through the blister card cover allow an object to be forced through the holes directly to the child-resistant backing, thereby allowing separation and subsequent removal of the child resistant backing located adjacent to the desired pharmaceutical blister. While the Key-Pak design is sufficient for single row blister strips, the Key-Pak design requires the cutting of holes in the blister package to access pharmaceutical blisters located in the middle cavities of cavity sheets having multiple rows. The formation of extra holes in the blister package results in unnecessary added cost and time to the manufacture of the resulting pharmaceutical package.
In the formation of child resistant blister card packages, a balance is had between designing a blister that is both tamper resistant and hermetically sealed while being easily opened by adults but not by children. However, many conventional blister packages are difficult to open, particularly by seniors or others with impaired dexterity. In the case of rupturable blisters, difficulty in opening may result in damage to the pharmaceutical. Additionally, with respect to peel-apart blisters, the child resistant backing layers are often difficult to manipulate and separate because they are thin and tightly sealed.